1987 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe "Sleeper"

1987 Chevrolet Corvette z51 Description

It was about 3 springs ago, I bought (traded) for my first Corvette. It has been an adventure in Car ownership like I really have never experienced before. Here is my Story.

A guy named John Rambo perused one of my Dead E-bay Auctions on a 77 Trans Am, I had owned for 20 years roughly. I had to decided to sell it cause I was tired of it. Cool car, and I might ad, one of the best looking cars to come out of The General's Motor house. John was not his real name. He and I made Facebook friends and I noticed he bought and sold many cool cars. He had a couple Corvettes on hand. After a Winter's Solstice of negotiations we conjured a deal. I would Cross owning a Legend off my bucket list. He resided in Kentucky, I in Wisconsin. In spring we set a date to meet in the middle around Indianapolis to make the trade, He provided a one owner, 34,000 mile Z51 4+3 Corvette a fist full cash in exchange for brown 1977 Trans Am.

In serendipitous fashion, a friend of mine for many years, Roy Rogers has just bought-en his 100th Corvette. Who better to take the ride down to Indy with me to make sure I was getting a fair trade? We Had a nice ride down with 6.6 liter purring like kitten, Drinking fuel like a fish.

Roy Rogers approved of John Rambo's Little Red Corvette, we exchanged Pink slips and headed north via Intrastate 65. The Corvette was Smooth, Fast..and Shaky due to Original Rubber. We took it easy on the way home and made with nary a complication. I was impressed with the how the car drove and the Amazing 29 Mpg we got on the way home, especially in comparison to the 10 Mpg, the Pontiac could muster.

Little Red was a 34,000 mile car a Now 87 year old man had bought new. It was the Better Handling Z-51 model with a DougNash built 4+3 Transmission. It was the first year of a Hydraulic Roller-Cammed Engine, putting out 240 Horse Power and 330 lbft of Torque I believe.....Driving this car you'd woulda thought it had 340 Horsepower, It was no Slouch.

Plans for this car Included taking it to the local Chevrolet Garage, to have every fluid Changed, and some Sticky BF-Goodrich Sport Comp. Tires installed for a Track day at Road America. I have many Ford Friends whom participate in Track Days there. So I joined the Ford Corbra club.

My first day on the legendary race track, on my fourth lap, sitting next to my Driving instructor, I said "Do you feel that vibration?" He said yes, asked me to check my oil Temp...pull over and let the traffic pass and drive to the pits. The worst thing happened....The Engine Let go. My 300.00 Dollar Track Day, ended in Great disappointment. My Kids and wife were there, all excited to watch Dad race, and I got four laps outta what shoulda been 6 sessions. Little Red had passed Tech Inspection with flying Colors and even got labled with #4, my first born birthday. I made it up to a 104 miles per hour before that shake (vibration) I shall never forget. Heartbreak.

Que Roy Rogers, He offered to help rebuild my Engine. He had done countless Corvette Engines, and worked R&D at Harley Davidson's Engine Room. He had Raced Generation 4 Corvettes 30 years ago in Amateur Road Racing. I was with the right man and he Graciously helped me Assemble the Engine. So the following Summer it was our project a couple nites a week in his Garage. It was fun spending time with Roy and I'll be forever thankful too him for passing on his knowledge. I've had some prior experience to building Engines, but figured I shouldn't pass up opportunity to work with a master of The small block.

We got the Engine Together, and outfitted with a Carbuerated Intake manifold so we could have Dan Timm over At Advanced Engine Concepts break the motor in on his dyno and see what kind of power it made. We had Dan work the #13 heads and outfitted the Engine with a one step hotter Cam Shaft. The Engine ended up making 358 Horse power and over 400 lbft of torque. Ohh This will be fun when I get it back into little Red! Over a 120hp over stock and a very substantal torque increase to boot!

Now to get this Engine back into this car. I'll make a long story short. There is nothing more Mechanically challenging than installing an Engine in a Manual Transmission C4 corvette. It took me a month of Sundays, but I did it! And by myself I might add. Hey if you did by yourself you'd brag a bit too! I'm chuckling to myself. I could write a whole other blog on "the treat" it is too accomplish feat.

Engines in the car, along with doing all kinds of other maintenance, Radiator, belts, sensors. Ect.

The engine Running in its Stock appearing guise was music to my ears. I've had many issues along the way, I've had misses that were and are hard to diagnose. When the Car runs good, its incredibly fast and fun to drive, its like oversized Go-Cart. Its able to blaze the sticky tires at will with Out a clutch dump. Handles amazing. I just cant compliment Chevrolet enough chassis design of this car. Its a real world super-car, these cars can bought very cheap. They'll take a full G on the skid pad, They cruise comfortably down the highway and are truly fuel sippers. Plus with my 350 putting out an extra 120 horse power over stock, it'll probably click off very respectable Quarter mile times. The only limitations this car really had were the weak horsepower numbers, but with the fuel injections long Intake Runners, it put the torque down low, you really feel like a driving a faster engine than it is even stock. These cars beat up on Porches in the day because they really handled well. I love the c4 corvette, I'm a little shocked that I got a car with a Generally super Reliable 350 that managed to spin 3 of main-bearings trashing the Crankshaft along the way. I will say one-thing I've learned more than I ever thought I would in Mechanics on this Vette.

-So Many New parts, I have Receipts. Probably 6-8k Invested.

-Some things still need attention...Has "A Miss" that comes and goes. Not sure if its EGR related? If I were to keep the car, that is what I'd address next. Possibly a Distributor issue?

-AC is not currently hooked up, Same with Wiper Motor

Main Reason for selling is My Wife wants me to get a Toy the whole family can enjoy. I told her I'm not selling it cheap as I've put a lot of my heart and soul into this car, and I love it. I also agree with her although, it'd be nice to have a car that seats four.

I will be listing this car till my Free listing expire. I have the right to end Auction anytime as car is for sale locally as well.

I will be taking better pictures, maybe putting a video up as well if its free on ebay...have to research that.

This car would make an awesome daily driver and or Track, autocross car...Much of the work is already done. I would like to see it go to someone who can really bring it back to glory. I dont even mind keeping it. We shall see what happens. I do NOT need to sell...just using up my free Auctions...What will be ... Will be. Good luck!